upa, day 2
I'm in the second day of the UPA conference in Baltimore. So far, so good. The quality of the session definitely varies, and they don't seem to be as academically-rock-proof as the ones at CHI, which could be a good thing... or, to put it another way, academics will not throw rocks at you if you don't have statistically significant numbers to back up every point that you're trying to make.
The coolest session I've gone to so far was a panel on the future of web analytics. The presenters did a great job in tracing the history of the field from where we were before (ah yes, odometer counters... I feel old when I say, "I remember those...") to today's technology. It's very clear that web analytics tools are not answering the "why" questions, and maybe they never will (unless you bring in a clever way to solicit just-in-time qualitative feedback). Still, the tools on the market today are progressing past the dashboard view of page hits/exit pages/demographics to recording behavior - and that's where the meat of the presentation was. The presenter showed off ClickTale, a tool that records users' mouse movements through simple javascript snippets injected into the page, and then plays them back by overlaying them over the actual pages.
As a way to observe users' actual behavior, this is clearly way cool. Of course, then you have to deduce what they were actually thinking - when they stopped moving the mouse, were they reading, or did they get up to go to the can? For what we do, there are two additional challenges: intranet data has some sensitivity, and shouldn't be recorded by a third party - and, a lot of our apps generate content that's unique to the user, so overlaying X/Y movements over static pages will not work. Surely, someone somewhere will crack that nut soon.
Last night after the conference, Jared Spool hosted a book launch party at a nearby restaurant. Intrigued by the promise of free food, my coworker and I headed over. The food was more of the appetizer variety, but we got to talk to some very interesting peeps. One guy, then working for JC Penny, got Jared to run his famous $1000 compelled shopping experiment. Another worked as a consultant with my group before I even started there, helping them come up with a set of intranet guidelines.
Afterwards, my coworker and I had to trek to our hotel with all of our luggage. We realized two things: one, our boss was attending a conference in a different location when she recommended this place as "just two blocks away", and two, it's definitely right on the ghetto boundary. But, the hotel itself is pretty decent, and it's paid for by the company, so I shouldn't really complain.
The coolest session I've gone to so far was a panel on the future of web analytics. The presenters did a great job in tracing the history of the field from where we were before (ah yes, odometer counters... I feel old when I say, "I remember those...") to today's technology. It's very clear that web analytics tools are not answering the "why" questions, and maybe they never will (unless you bring in a clever way to solicit just-in-time qualitative feedback). Still, the tools on the market today are progressing past the dashboard view of page hits/exit pages/demographics to recording behavior - and that's where the meat of the presentation was. The presenter showed off ClickTale, a tool that records users' mouse movements through simple javascript snippets injected into the page, and then plays them back by overlaying them over the actual pages.
As a way to observe users' actual behavior, this is clearly way cool. Of course, then you have to deduce what they were actually thinking - when they stopped moving the mouse, were they reading, or did they get up to go to the can? For what we do, there are two additional challenges: intranet data has some sensitivity, and shouldn't be recorded by a third party - and, a lot of our apps generate content that's unique to the user, so overlaying X/Y movements over static pages will not work. Surely, someone somewhere will crack that nut soon.
Last night after the conference, Jared Spool hosted a book launch party at a nearby restaurant. Intrigued by the promise of free food, my coworker and I headed over. The food was more of the appetizer variety, but we got to talk to some very interesting peeps. One guy, then working for JC Penny, got Jared to run his famous $1000 compelled shopping experiment. Another worked as a consultant with my group before I even started there, helping them come up with a set of intranet guidelines.
Afterwards, my coworker and I had to trek to our hotel with all of our luggage. We realized two things: one, our boss was attending a conference in a different location when she recommended this place as "just two blocks away", and two, it's definitely right on the ghetto boundary. But, the hotel itself is pretty decent, and it's paid for by the company, so I shouldn't really complain.
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